Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Onigiri - Rice Balls

One day I ordered a rice ball in an Italian restaurant thinking that it would be something like a Japanese rice ball. I was dead wrong. It was good... but it wasn't like this. Onigiri are awesome, and we make them all the time because they are fast, easy, and adorable.

My boo likes big onigiri. I like little onigiri. He likes onigiri completely wrapped in seaweed, and I like mine partially wrapped. But we agree on the fillings, and it's the inside that matters.

$5 well spent. You just drop the onigiri mold in some salt water and they're ready to use.

We used 2 different fillings: wasabi mayo mixed with canned tuna, and the marinated sweet and salty seaweed straight out of the bag. Really simple and on two completely different ends of the filling spectrum.

Instead of plain rice, we used fried rice. The more ingredients the merrier! This had peas, corn, egg, and shishito peppers. It was seasoned with more wasabi and salt.

Notice the pearly quality of the rice. Ideally the grains would be nice and separated, but there's still enough moisture so that you can mush it into an onigiri ball.

Load them up with whatever you want, sandwiching the filling between 2 layers or rice. Squeeze the lid on, and you get...

Then you just fold it up in the seaweed! I used to cut the sheets of seaweed to make perfect wraps... but now I just cut them in half.

The seaweed makes them easier to hold and prevents the rice from crumbling while you eat.

As usual, we made too many.

So cute and so good!! I'm convinced that the cuteness makes them more delicious!!